To get the most out of this book

Following along with the recipes in this book should not require anything more than a basic knowledge of computer networking and some familiarity with computers and software.

You will get the most out of this book if you follow along with a functioning pfSense system. Thus, it will be helpful you have either spare hardware onto which you can install the current version of pfSense, or virtualization software so that you can run pfSense inside a virtual machine (VM). I cannot do full justice to all the variants of VMs available, but I can say that Oracle VM Virtual Box has proven quite useful in preparing the material for this book.

This book does not provide a step-by-step guide on how to install pfSense, but if you need such a guide, you can find one here: https://www.netgate.com/docs/pfsense/install/installing-pfsense.html.

Download the color images

We also provide a PDF file that has color images of the screenshots/diagrams used in this book. You can download it here: http://www.packtpub.com/sites/default/files/downloads/9781789806427_ColorImages.pdf.

Conventions used

There are a number of text conventions used throughout this book.

CodeInText: Indicates code words in text, database table names, folder names, filenames, file extensions, pathnames, dummy URLs, user input, and Twitter handles. Here is an example: "In the Name edit box, enter an appropriate name (for example, WEB_SERVER_IPS)."

Bold: Indicates a new term, an important word, or words that you see onscreen. For example, words in menus or dialog boxes appear in the text like this. Here is an example: "Click on the LAN tab, if it isn't selected already."

Warnings or important notes appear like this.

Tips and tricks appear like this.